‘United States of Ukraine’? Kiev Political Establishment Ponders Federalization

Infamous Ukrainian lawmaker Alexei Goncharenko, a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction, has called on the government to study the experience of state building used by the Swiss Confederation. Unfortunately, Ukrainian politics experts suggest that Bosnia, not Switzerland, may be the more relevant model for contemporary Ukraine.

Goncharenko, who has been accused in Russia of helping to organize the violent events of May 2, 2014, when far-right activists in Odessa, Ukraine blocked anti-Maidan protesters inside the city’s House of Trade Unions and set it on fire, killing 48 people, made his comments about ‘studying’ Switzerland’s model on the occasion of Swiss National Day, which commemorates the foundation of the state, on August 1.

“There is no other country in the world where the beauty of nature is so harmoniously complemented by the beauty of the country’s social order,” the politician wrote. “26 independent regional associations, speaking four languages, constitute one of the most sound nations in the world. I think you will agree, this is an example worth emulating,” the politician wrote, in a blog entry on the Ukrainskaya Pravda website.